Bally’s Helps Tropicana Workers Find New Employment

The upcoming demolition of Tropicana in Las Vegas will pave the way for the creation of a new baseball stadium in Sin City. The stadium will be the new home of the Oakland Athletics, the famous Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise and has a price tag surpassing a whopping $1 billion. Yet, the demolition of Tropicana may also temporarily affect several hundred workers.

Ameet Patel, Bally’s SVP and regional manager, who was recently quoted by CDC Gaming Reports, revealed that April 2 remains the closing date for Tropicana. He confirmed that so far there are no unexpected events that may change the date, adding that earlier in the year, the venue started to gradually decrease its offering.

Patel said that with the announcement of the planned closure, many employees started work elsewhere, which is why Tropicana decreased its gaming offering. The SVP and general manager confirmed that Bally’s organized a couple of job fairs last week that would ultimately help its workers land new jobs.

Speaking about the job fairs that helped employees discuss opportunities with non-gaming and gaming companies, Patel said Bally’s received “extremely positive” feedback from its team members. He added that upon closing, Tropicana would have some 600 employees. That number will decrease to about 100 for a 90-day period afterward. Patel explained that the workers that would remain longer would be security, engineering and maintenance teams. He predicted that between 70% and 80% of the 700 workers will find other jobs.

The Company Received a Bid from Standard General

Currently, Standard General owns a 23% stake in Bally’s. Back in 2022, the company attempted to acquire the outstanding shares in Bally’s, but its bid failed. At the time, Standard General tabled a proposal of $38 per share. Earlier this month, the company made another bid to acquire the outstanding shares in Bally’s. In contrast to the first proposal, the price per share was $15 but it still marked a substantial increase of more than 41% of the company’s closing share price as of March 8, 2024.

Dan Reaser, Bally’s attorney, acknowledged the outstanding offer saying that not much information could be disclosed at this time. Similar to the previous proposal of Standard General, the company is expected to form a committee that would consider the bid and hire the services of a financial and legal advisor. With that in mind, it is yet to be confirmed whether Bally’s will confirm to reject the bid.